With Miss Inass Akisra, we’ve been through everything that horology means for Formula 1. However, with the release of the F1 movie (where Brad Pitt made more buzz among the sport’s amateurs than Verstappen) watches have unexpectedly but justifiably taken quite the spotlight.
See, what I want to talk about is how this movie (not ”film” since that’s a word a snob like me uses for the more classic side of cinema) is not only showing how cool it is to be into motor racing as a watch enthusiast, but also how intentional the production team is with the pieces chosen for the characters.
IWC is one hell of a watch company. The International Watch Company. A deep and rich aviation heritage. A strong and imposing presence in motor racing. And of course, a rising voice in popular culture.
In my opinion, they could not have picked a better sponsor for this modern F1 hyper interpretation. IWC has been very active these past few years. Especially after that GPHG win!
Their partnerships with creators (they’d better sponsor me), their social media presence, their marketing, their releases… again, very active.
As for the movie related pieces, Brad Pitt, being who he is, had a custom green dial Ingenieur made just to flex on us common folk. YES, a modified Gerald Genta (may his sould rest in piece) creation for a hollywood movie.
But it doesn’t stop at Pitt’s wrist. The whole thing feels like a curated watch flex. The shots where the watches aren’t just props, yet part of the storytelling. The mechanical heart of racing meets the mechanical heart of watchmaking.
And of course, IWC didn’t show up empty-handed. You can’t just slap any chrono on the wrist of a fictional F1 legend and call it a day. What they did was go full method. The production reportedly worked hand-in-hand with IWC’s design team to build “visual continuity”, both for realism and brand identity. That custom green-dial Ingenieur? It’s not just a vanity piece for Brad. It’s character-driven product placement. The color isn’t a random pick either — it’s a nod to British Racing Green, but also to IWC’s increasingly bold chromatic experimentation (see the Top Gun Mojave or Woodland editions).
Now, let’s take a second to reflect on what this means beyond the screen. We’re seeing a shift in how watches are presented in mass media. In the past, you’d get a wide shot, and maybe the Bond Submariner would get a two-second close-up. Now? The watch gets its OWN introduction scene.
And this is where F1 and watches really start dancing in rhythm. Both industries share this deep obsession with precision, with weight, with materials. Titanium is king in both paddocks. Aerodynamics in racing, case ergonomics in watchmaking. Carbon fiber on a spoiler, or a dial. It’s the same engineering language spoken by two crafts.
And what this movie did is shine a spotlight on that overlap. It reminded the public that being into watches and being into motorsport isn’t niche anymore. It’s not a dusty collector’s club or a rich guy’s Sunday hobby. It’s part of a larger visual and mechanical identity — something people actually relate to. You don’t have to own the Ingenieur to get it. You just have to know what it means.
Also, let’s be honest: a lot of people watching F1 now came through Netflix’s Drive to Survive. This movie is the next chapter. And IWC, once again, is positioning itself right at the intersection of new fans, old collectors, and cinema’s permanent craving for cool.
So where does that leave us? Enlightened by these big corp marketing lessons ?
Anyways, I’m just wondering if Genta would approve of this…
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